Alberto Campo Baeza
Olnick Spanu House
Garrison, New York
Photo: Javier Callejas
“A place where twilights are a thousand colors as the water on the Hudson River breaks into a thousand reflections. A place where the air is clean and calm, and mild. One could say a place that is very close to heaven. In this impressive place, we establish a plane, a platform that underlines the landscape before us, seeking to enhance it.”
Alberto Campo Baeza
Photo: Javier Callejas
Photo: Javier Callejas
The house is a 122 feet by 54 feet long box, 12 feet high, with sturdy concrete walls that accentuate its relationship to the land. The roof is flat, paved in travertine, serving as a terrace for the living quarters contained in a glass box above.
Photo: Javier Callejas
Photo: Javier Callejas
This glass box is divided by two white boxes, that do not reach the ceiling, containing the stairs and service spaces. The living area occupies the central space, the kitchen is on one side closer to the swimming pool, the area around the hearth, in the manner of a pensatorio, is on the other side.
Photo: Javier Callejas
Photo: Javier Callejas
In order to accentuate its transparency the back row of columns, supporting the cantilevered roof, are contained within the glass box, leaving the front columns outside.
The bedrooms and baths are housed in the cement box below. In its central vestibule, connecting the main entrance and the access to the garden, Arte Povera and other pieces of contemporary Italian art are displayed.
Sketch courtesy Aberto Campo Baeza
Sketch
Sketch courtesy Aberto Campo Baeza
Sketch
Drawing courtesy Aberto Campo Baeza
Basement Level Plan
Drawing courtesy Aberto Campo Baeza
Glass Box Plan
Drawing courtesy Aberto Campo Baeza
Section
Total area: 900 square meters
Completed: 2008
Client: Nancy Olnick & Giorgio Spanu
Architect: Aberto Campo Baeza
Project manager: Miguel Garcia-Quismondo, architect Collaborator: Ignacio Aguirre, architect
Structural Engineer: Michael P. Carr
Maria Conception Perez, architect
MEP Engineers: D’Antonio Consulting Engineers
General Consultants. Massimo & Lella Vignelli
Lighting Consultant: Gary Gordon, LLC
Concrete Consultant. Reginald D. Hough, FAIA
Color Consultant: Donald Kaufman & Taffy Dahl
Glass Consultant: juan José Pérez Pina
Alberto Campo Baeza arcspace features
October 19, 2009